Jubilant 'Choral' Symphony for the Jubilee

The bold horn calls of Beethoven's Fidelio Overture launched
the penultimate concert in the Totally Beethoven series at London's
St John's Smith Square on 14 June 2002 -- aptly billed as a 'Jubilee
Concert' and featuring as its main work Beethoven's jubilant Choral
Symphony. The twelve concert series is presented by the London Soloists
Chamber Orchestra under their musical director David Josefowitz. The Fidelio
Overture and Extracts, given a vigorous interpretation with many felicities
of orchestration realised with pristine energy, was an ideal work for this
young orchestra, its members either graduates or students at London's
leading conservatoires. They played with freshness and vitality, under the
baton of David Josefowitz, whose dynamic conducting is imbued with the spirit
of the great masters, having worked for many years in the record industry
as a plastics expert and later as producer of some 2000 LPs. He founded
the ensemble fifteen years ago as a platform for young talent, and indeed
many of its members have since attained international recognition.

The Fidelio extracts began with Leonore's first aria, impelled
with gusto by soprano Ruby Hughes. She was joined in the moving quartet,
fervently projected over the suavely smooth strings by alto Jeanette Ager
(1998 Richard Auber Prize winner), James Lawrence, a wonderful Royal Academy
of Music trained tenor, and Philip O'Brien who is currently at Glyndebourne.
O'Brien's rendition of the Rocco aria Das Gold was bustling
and fun, followed by a highlight -- Lawrence's outstanding account of
Florestan's Act II aria -- beautifully phrased with depth and variety
of tone. His duet with Ruby Hughes provided a thrilling conclusion.